NO LONGER ENCUMBERED BY ANY SENSE OF FAIR PLAY, EX-JOURNALISTS RETURN TO ACTIVE DUTY TO FIGHT THE TRUMPIAN MENACE!

Who wants a Russian cover-up? These 18, that’s who!

While President Trump was preparing to deliver his first address to a joint session of Congresson Feb. 28, the House Judiciary Committee was also doing something historic — though quieter, and apparently less deserving of headlines.

The 40-member committee killed a Resolution of Inquiry (H.Res. 111) introduced on Feb. 9 by Representative Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.). The inquiry would have directed the Department of Justice to provide the House of Representatives documents relating to the president’s financial practices, including the administration’s possible ties to Russia.

Historic? Yes. It was the first time Congress voted on legislation concerning an investigation of Trump conflicts and Russia ties.

As Nadler later tweeted, “Today we learned who wants to know the truth and who wants a cover-up … on the record.”

The House Judiciary Committee, you may recall, is the one that determines whether grounds for impeachment exist. It participated in the impeachment process of President Richard Nixon in 1974 and President Bill Clinton in 1998.

Nadler delivered these remarks to Congress on Feb. 28: “Mr. Chairman, each day, more questions arise concerning President Trump’s foreign business entanglements and his inexplicably cozy relationship with Russia. Each day, Democrats on this committee, and on other committees, have requested hearings and investigations into these serious issues. And yet, each day, with a few exceptions, we have been met with a deafening silence from our Republican colleagues.”

“This resolution is particularly important because Attorney General Sessions, who was involved in the Trump campaign, has refused to recuse himself from any investigation, and it is not clear that he could be impartial, or that he will even conduct an investigation at all.”

If Democracy Dies in Darkness, as the snappy new Washington Post slogan proclaims, here’s a little illumination for you. It’s a complete list of Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, including those who voted no on H. Res. 111 and those who didn’t vote at all. Guess which ones are up for re-election in the 2018 midterms? All of them.

Feel free to devise a pithy but polite sentence or two and tell your public servants how you feel about this vote.